“If thieves
Came to you,
How you would have been
Destroyed!
If plunderers
Came by night,
How you have been
Destroyed!
Would they not steal
Only what they wanted?
If grape-gatherers
Came to you,
Would they not
Leave gleanings?
How Esau has been pillaged!
His treasures have been
Sought out!
All your allies
Have deceived you.
They have driven you
To the border.
Your confederates
Have prevailed
Against you.
Those who ate your bread
Have set a trap
For you.
There is no understanding of it.”
Edom has suffered like as if thieves had come to them at night. However, these robbers would only take what they wanted. Unlike grape-gatherers who leave gleanings for the poor, these attackers have pillaged Edom and taken its treasures. It was their own allies that deceived Edom. They drove them out of their own country to the border. Their former friends had prevailed against them. The very people, who they used to sit down to break bread with, were the ones who set the trap for them. Who could understand such a thing?
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 